Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
The December 2008 issue of Zygon just showed up in my mailbox, with a great article by Daniel Levine & Leonid Perlovsky, titled “Neuroscientific insights on Biblical Myth: Simplifying heuristics versus careful thinking: scientific analysis of millenial spiritual issues.” L&P review what we know about neuroimaging studies, which suggest two brain regions work out the balance between being Cartesian and Stochastic.
Quote:One region implicated in primary emotional experience is more activated in individuals who use primitive heuristics, whereas two areas of the cortext are more activated in individuals with a strong knowledge drive: one region implicated in detecting risk or conflict and another implicated in generating creative ideas. Knowledge maximization and effort minimization are both evolutionary adaptations, and both are valuable in different contexts.
Full abstract is here:http://ur1.ca/0p8i .kupord maizzed wrote:Godzilla Gaijin wrote:I sit through Sacrament meeting, hold my own Sunday School class in a nearby park, and then return for Priesthood, especially if it looks like GDTeacher’s Japanese counterpart will be teaching the lesson.
Great plan! What is it about Sunday School!?!?
Well, I should caveat that remark. I attend the Park Branch SS whenever my DW is not teaching SS. And interestingly, whenever she isn’t teaching, she usually finds something else to do.
I think that it’s more about the fact that most adults can’t stand sitting for three hours. Especially when we’re having the kind of mild winter we’ve been having here in Japan. That, and the fact that the Park Branch SS serves mildly caffeinated beverages. [ Aside: What’s really funny is that nearly all of the expat LDS kids here in Japan hang out in Starbucks. I even see some of them in the park during SS block.]
What makes a good SS class? One where Stochastic comments are offered and respected. During the holidays here, the expat wards tend to evaporate, and so last week we met combined with a couple of other wards. My oldest kid commented on his SS class being awesome, because the teacher was able to freely weave in remarks about drugs, sports, sex, and rock and roll, in a positive way. Too often, stochastic remarks are met with the sound of silence.
So on days when my DW teaches, I generally try to attend, and take my parktime during priesthood. They’re mostly interchangeable anyways, at least as far as curriculum goes.
Quote:Valoel wrote:NOM = people who want/need to stay positively engaged with the Church, but don’t believe anymore.
StayLDS = people who lost faith, but want to believe again in the LDS Church
This is a nice taxonomy, but I would simply it even further for the StayLDS-ite.Desire to believe = desire to belong
For many of us, this is where the seed of our belief takes root anyway. Alma 32, and “giving place” for the seed talks about desire being where to plant the seed. Three year olds learn to articulate and equate “I love my mommy and daddy… I know the church is twoo…”
I find the best way to beat down the jaded NOM in me whenever I hear somebody start to say “I KNOW that X is…” in church, is to subsitute “I love the sense of belonging that X gives me.”
